Detroitism

An excellent piece in Guernica on ruin porn, Detroitsploitation and three classic Detroit narratives: Detroit as metonym, the Detroit lament, and Detroit utopia.

Roof Work

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2012's Erik Jutten is working with Design 99's Mitch and Gina on the Power House roof extension


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2012 redesigns Power House roof

2012 architects redesigned in collaboration with Design 99 the roof of the Power House.

2012 has been in the first resident in the residency pilot-project, which Partizan Publik is curating in collaboration with Design 99 and is supported financially by Fund BKVB.

Currently Erik Jutten is working on behalf of 2012 on the reconstruction of the roof with Mitch Cope en Gina Reichert. Early 2011 designer Guido Marsille will take over Erik's position.

Too Much of a Good Thing

OPENING THIS THURSDAY
(that's right, Thursday)
May 27th at MOCAD
Public opening 8 – 11PM, $6



FEATURING
The Neighborhood Machine
A mobile device that roams and wonders one Detroit neighborhood in search of evidence of what is believed to be a vast reservoir of spiritual, physical and emotional wealth waiting to be found in the back alleys, dark side streets, and abandoned backyards of the neighborhood.
The Machine will be capable of physically altering in major ways the landscape and built environment in order to find these resources. It will also act as a communicator and distributor of information, collecting never before seen images and video of these mysterious resources. While roaming the machine lays tracks that can be followed by others for reconstruction and reorganization in order to bring in the future neighborhood.

"Design 99’s work explores the edges of art practice, utilizing, design, architecture, found materials and utilitarian objects to propose creative solutions to complex problems. Their practice has at its core the belief that transformation can happen in a natural way, if we only take a look, think out-of-the-box and take action."

Too Much of a Good Thing is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and curated by Luis Croquer, Director and Chief Curator.
Show runs through July 25th
Museum hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 11 – 5PM, – 8PM on Thursday & Friday
MOCAD is located at 4454 Woodward Ave, 3 blocks south of Warren, in Detroit

Whose Banksy is it?

I've strolled through and around the former Packard Plant for several years. Met scrap traders and trash dumpers, explorers, tourists, gangs of people, gangs of dogs, seen great painted walls and lots of semi-poetic urban scrawls ("What happened to the American Dream? is the one I see by the Grand Boulevard side.) The former plant is close to a mile long--it's easy not to see everything. But keen eyes spotted a wall painting by elusive street artist Banksy--and took it (the movers are part of Detroit gallery/collective 555.) This is either in the great Detroit scrap tradition (finders keepers even if it is on private property) or its a chapter for city lore.

Here are some questions this (re)moval is provoking for me: What is street art removed from the street? Can you move it like a painting on a wall without changing the meaning of the work or the act? Is the move its own act?

Detroit Free Press on Banksy's move

Dateline Detroit

Dateline Detroit

Last week, NBC broadcast an episode of its Dateline news program on Detroit. The primary focus is familiar--the vulnerable, poor yet resilient African American residents of a crumbling city with a sprinkling of artists and celebrities.

Dateline host Chris Hansen speaks with and profiles, among others, Mitch Cope and Gina Reichert, Kid Rock and Raccoon Man, Glemmie Beasley, a blues musician who shoots and eats raccoon around the city for sale and nutritional value. The local and national response is that Detroit, like Baltimore and other African American inner cities is thick in media sensations like Raccoon Man and that in an hour long special, a broader view is not only possible, but a responsibility.

Some local news responses to the special:
Detroit News on Dateline